Human rights group claims success in holding Amazon accountable

A human rights coalition says it has won a victory in pushing Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) to be more accountable for possible ethical problems, such as potentially sourcing materials from conflict zones.

The worldwide coalition, Sum Of Us, demanded in a shareholder proposal at the Seattle retailer's annual meeting last week that Amazon publicly list such potential human rights problems.

About a quarter of shareholders approved of that plan.

“I was thrilled,” said Lisa Lindsley, a senior shareholder advocacy manager with Sum Of Us, which won only 5 percent support last year.

Lindsley, who read the proposal on the floor of the meeting last week, said she wasn’t sure what caused the upswell of support. She noted, however, that Institutional Shareholder Services, an advisory service to large asset managers such as mutual funds, had supported the proposal this year.

Amazon’s board of directors didn’t support the proposal and recommended in proxy materials that shareholders vote against it.

The proposal asks Amazon, which employs more than 230,000 people worldwide, to give a detailed and public assessment of possible risks to its business caused by actual and potential human rights problems.

In the proxy materials, Amazon put forth its own statement saying that “we are strongly committed to protecting human rights in our operations and supply chain.” As an example, the company said it requires suppliers to comply with its Supplier Code of Conduct, which covers areas such as wages and working hours.

Lindsley said Sum Of Us will try to arrange a phone call with Amazon executives to discuss human rights at the company.